Tuesday, December 29, 2009

caution: this post is picture intensive due to my lack of posting the past couple months . . .

Tom and I went to Nashville for Halloween! Tom has special ties to Nashville, because he played football for the Vanderbilt Commodores his freshman year. The campus and the city have a special place in his heart, and he's always wanted to take me back there and show me around . . . so that's what we did!

Tom: "I walked over that bridge every day on my way to class!"

The squirrel picture has a story: not only are there a million squirrels all over Vandy's campus, but one day when Tom was walking to class from football practice, he was attacked by one. He survived, the size ratio nonwithstanding. And isn't the architecture of all the buildings incredible? I love it.

Vandy's campus is also an arbortoreum. Which means: SO MANY TREES! Beautiful, mature trees. This was a trend I found all over Tennessee. Very different from Utah- a much more lush, green look, and we were there in the fall to see all the beautiful colors!

I also got the special tour of the Vanderbilt athletic facilities! Tom showed me around the locker room & the weight room, and it was a special moment when he showed me the Commodore Creed and told me more about the quality of people and friends that are part of the Vanderbilt program. Classy, genuine people- and so friendly. We felt right at home.

There's no pictures, because of course my camera ran out of batteries, but we also went to the Vanderbilt vs. Georgia Tech game. Vandy was doing great until the last quarter, and I enjoyed watching a live football game with Tom, who hasn't sat in the stands for probably 10 years.

You can't go to Nashville without going to Jack's BBQ, right? Well, we went multiple times. Seriously, bbq back home has nothing on the bbq in the South. SO. GOOD.

I feel like I'm taking y'all on the grand tour of Tom & Whit's trip, but here you go. We also went to the Hermitage, President Andrew Jackson's homestead. It was gorgeous. Here is Tom walking on the path to the slave quarters (you can barely see the sky through the trees!) and here we are wearing the goofy headphones that with the press of a button, tell you all you would ever hope to know about the Hermitage and life at the time of Andrew Jackson. and more.

Tom at Andrew Jackson's tomb and on the back porch of the mansion.

The Hermitage is a very large place, and we walked around all of it, which requires a good amount of resting on the benches, as you can see.

trees, trees, trees! & clover wherever you walk . .

Waiting in line at the Pancake Pantry! Tom also thought that the store across the street reminded him of someone he knows . . .

We also stopped at the Battle of Nashville monument. For those of you who know me and my bookshelves, I have a thing for Civil War books- and this monument was just so cool. I love the inscriptions- particularly the last line of the one in the picture above.

Didn't I marry such a handsome man? Anyway, while in Nashville we also saw a show at the Grand Ole Oprey- my first country music show! Keith Urban was one of the performers, along with Vince Gill and a bunch of other really talented people (whose names I don't remember). Alas, I would show more pictures, but lack of juice in the camera batteries prevented it.

And a special thanks to the Piennettes for letting us stay with you in Brentwood, use your truck, your GPS, taking us to the airport, etc. You guys are the best! Go Notre Dame!

Ok, these last two pictures might seem kinda random, but they are the last of my fall pictures: Tom in the Field of Dreams assuaging my middle school teaching woes, and my cute sis Kelley going to Homecoming!